New high-tech system to monitor criminals

Police and prosecutors are to get new high-tech systems to help them monitor and convict the most prolific criminals in England and Wales, ministers said today.

The new initiative, based on the Police National Computer and on a new Web-based system named JTrack, is designed to keep tabs on persistent adult offenders.

Mirroring a successful campaign aimed at juvenile tearaways which was launched by the Government in 1997, the Persistent Offender Scheme will target adults who have been convicted of six or more recordable offences in the last year.

Others identified through local police intelligence will also face closer scrutiny under the new strategy, entitled Narrowing the Justice Gap.

It aims to reduce the huge difference between the number of crimes reported to police and the number of offenders brought to justice.

A report by the Audit Commission published in June found criminals have only a one in 16 chance of being caught and sentenced, with 5.2 million offences recorded by police in 2000-01, and only 326,000 offenders sentenced in court.

The new technology announced today will identify prolific offenders responsible for crimes such as robbery, theft, burglary and criminal damage, the Home Office said.

The criminals will be "flagged" on the Police National Computer and police commanders will receive regular lists of the persistent offenders in their area.

The Internet JTrack system, used by both police and the Crown Prosecution Service, will then keep tabs on them, and when caught their cases will be prioritised by the courts.

Home Office minister Lord Falconer said: "The criminal justice system has halved the time it takes to deal with persistent young offenders from arrest to sentence.

"Building on this work, an early focus of Narrowing the Justice Gap is a strategy to clamp down on adult persistent offenders by bringing them to book for more offences and making them give up their life of crime.

"Home Office research shows that 100,000 criminals are responsible for half of all recorded crime and increasing the frequency of an offender being caught and convicted is the most effective single way of shortening their criminal career."

The Persistent Offender Scheme will start in February.

The Home Office also confirmed it is to set up 42 local Criminal Justice Boards and a national board, as first proposed in July's criminal justice White Paper.

The boards will set about tackling glitches and blockages in the system.

Lord Falconer added: "Too few offenders are brought to justice.

"The current size of the justice gap is unacceptable, we can and must do better."

The minister unveiled the strategy at a criminal justice roadshow in central London today.

According to Home Office figures, the proportion

of crimes solved by police in 2001-02 was 23%, down from 24% the previous year.

The Audit Commission study, entitled Route to Justice, also found that while the criminal justice system was made up of seven different agencies, including the police and the prison service, is overseen by three government departments, employs 300,000 people and costs £13 billion a year, it rarely acted as a "system" at all.

It said there was a lack of common and shared objectives, which created tensions between the different agencies, diluting the emphasis that should be placed on the needs of victims, witnesses and offenders.